Remember. And Celebrate.

One voice spoke out, alerting us all that something had happened. A hush fell over the floor as we tried to grasp the chain of events that brought the world to a screeching halt. The day progressed in an anticipatory fog and as night fell, I found that I had a wrapped myself in a breathless heartbroken cocoon. I knew if I took a breath, I would be inhaling pure fear that would permeate me wholly. Sorrow was acceptable for me, fear was not. I woke the next morning wary, on my toes, steeling myself for a new world. And a new world it was. I had always known there were evil people who did atrocious acts. But my new world? My new world was full of heros. Heros. So many heros. Flight 93 fought back. Injured scared people helped their fellow citizens. NYPD and NYFD, their families, the families of those lost, the people from around the country who drove to hell to help anyway they could, people who gave money, shelter, comfort to those in need. All heros. I'll never forget those who were lost. Never. And I will always celebrate those donned their capes and worked to set the world straight again. Heros.

Mojowritingless

How is it, that it has been almost a year since I have blogged? I thought that being a stay at home mom would allow me more time to write and material to write about. While I have been supplied with more than enough to write about (and honestly I could have made the time), what I guess I have lacked is mojo. I have been mojowritingless. (Yes, that is a word. Look it up.) Mojowritingless...that is me.

Wordless Wednesday

New Color Scheme

My current home is colored like a chocolate covered cherry. Lots of brown, beiges and red. My new home is vastly different. Main colors...

Urban Pulse by Valspar

Shaken Not Stirred by Valspar Shockingly different and yet, most of my furniture and decor will work (hopefully!)

We Bought a "House"

In attempt to downsize, we have decided to move. So we bought a "house". A house, by definition, is a building in which people live; residence for human beings. So by definition, it is actually a "house" that we bought; however, it is not a "house" that is worthy of being Mi Casa. Thankfully Mister and I have the ability to see big picture, to see the opportunity that stood in front of us.

Now, when you see this "house" you may think to your self, "Self, that home looks pretty good! What is she fussing about?" And from the magic of a camera lense, the house doesn't look half bad. Its in a great neighborhood, on a great lot and has a pool! Let me go ahead and give you a little tour.

The front of the house; it has beautiful shade, a picture window and is on a quiet street.
The family room; it has a fireplace, pocket doors leading to the back bedroom suite and sliding glass doors giving view to the pool.
The kitchen; it is open to the family room and clearly is missing the upper cabinets.
The breakfast nook; it is a very generously sized area with a nice window over looking the pool.
The master bedroom; nice sliding glass doors overlooking the pool and a vaulted ceiling.
The master bathroom; beautiful tiled shower, large walk-in closet and um... 20 year old tulip wall paper.
One of the 3 smaller bedrooms.
Bathroom; quiet a bit dated and somewhat functional.
The best part of the house as it is, the pool and lanai.
When we bought what we are now affectionately calling The Money Pit, we had initially thought that a fresh coat of paint and new carpet would make everything good enough to move into. The rest we would do bit by bit over time. Well, that plan has been totally scrapped and along with the plan, our summer has been scrapped. Thank God for the pool as the kids have been there every day, every step of the way with us as we are doing most of the renovations ourselves. And my ourselves, I mean with mega doses of help from family and friends! Thank you Jesus for people who love us!

A quick run down of projects completed or in the works thus far:

• Pool cleaned, shocked, cleaned, shocked, and cleaned and shocked again.



• All popcorn ceilings scraped and retextured with knockdown.



• All walls with wallpaper (horrible, horrible wallpaper that was applied directly to sheet rock!) have been stripped and retextured with knockdown.



• All other walls have been patched, repaired and retextured.



• Tile and carpet removed throughout the house with the exception of the bathrooms.



• Soffits removed from kitchen.



• Fireplace mantel reconstructed.



• Area carved out over the fireplace so that our TV will be flush mounted up on the wall.



• New AC unit installed (most of the work done was without AC!!)



• Paint EVERYWHERE!

We have kitchen cabinets on order, have picked out our granite, are finishing up painting this week, prepping and laying hardwood floor this week and carpet is coming on Friday! We are about 3 weeks from completion and 6 weeks past exhaustion.

I look forward to the day when I can write about the completion and transformation of a "house" into "our home". Until then, I pray for strength, energy, patience and that I can stay out of the loony bin for the next couple of weeks. :-)

Me? A Wannabe Couponing Queen??

I have ALWAYS been cost conscious. Growing up in a household with seven kids, makes you aware of what is a "need to have" or a "like to have". Once I got my first job (one of the most GLAMOROUS jobs to have in Collierville, TN at the time... Sonic Carhop!) I started being responsible for all of my own school clothes, gas and whatever else it was that I wanted/needed. I've worked my entire life and have dabbled in couponing my entire life upon until now... I was laid off from my job in February (Thank you Jesus!) and now needed to get very serious about saving money. In comes the couponing craze! One of my besties attended a couponing class at just about the same time that TLC started showing Extreme Couponing. I couldn't get away from it! Every time, I talked to Jonna, she was telling about how much money she was saving. Every time I went to her house, she was showing me her ever growing stockpile. It was starting to make me a little crazy. I mean, I was cutting out the coupons in the Sunday paper. I was looking at the sale ads that I got in the mail. I was making lists upon lists upon lists and still not seeing the results that I wanted. Finally Jonna organized a coupon class at our church with I Heart Coupons. For me... this was my last chance.


I walk into the class (with Mister in tow- surprisingly, he wanted to attend?), sat down, got out my notebook and waited for the class to start. Friends were streaming in, chatting, giving kisses and hugs hello while I sat. and waited. for the class to begin. I was not here to socialize. I was here to save some moolah. In walks the coupon lady. The class begins with her asking who has used coupons and what their experiences had been like. I raised my hand and shared that I suck at couponing and if she wasn't able to make this all come clear to me, I was never going to cut another coupon again. And I said all of this with a challenge in my eye and in my heart. And over the course of the next couple of hours, the coupon lady picked up my challenge and pretty much made mince meat of it. It made sense! It all finally made sense! In theory... would I actually be able to go to the store with these little scraps of paper I had cut out of the newspaper and get stuff for darn near free?


Fast forward to today. I did my homework, read couponing blogs, made my list, clipped my coupons, and just to prove to the world what a brave and virtuous woman I am..., I took my 4 year old to the grocery store with me. In less than an 1.5 hours in the store, I ended up walking out saving $121!!! I saved over 55% of my grocery bill! Amazeballs!!

I could not believe it! All of this food was mine, all mine! I had chicken breasts, produce, dairy, 10 boxes of Rice-A-Roni... Food, real food! I Heart Coupons is a mad mother shut your mouth when it comes to spreading the good word of couponing! I am eternally grateful for the knowledge she has shared. Now I can be a much better steward of the money that God has given me and can grow a stockpile of items to be donated to local charities. I can not wait for next week's ads to come out so I can see what other amazing things are going to fill up my pantry!

Beautiful Ballerina

Ma'am had her ballet recital today and she did wonderfully! We planned on taking pictures on the river front after the recital but we walked out to rain pouring down ruining my photo shoot. Here are a couple of candids taken with my phone. Isn't she beautiful?




I love her!